SACRAMENTO / Bill would end life-without-parole for some teen killers / State Senate panel votes 3-2 for relaxed sentencing standard

Mark Martin, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, April 18, 2007

2007-04-18 04:00:00 PDT Sacramento -- After testimony from a teen murderer who later became an ordained priest, a state Senate committee narrowly approved legislation Tuesday that would prevent juveniles from being sentenced to prison for life without the possibility of release.

State Sen. Leland Yee's legislation survived its first committee hearing as Yee argued that young killers can be rehabilitated. Yee, D-San Francisco, is seeking to end life-without-the-possibility-of-parole sentences for teenagers in a measure that would allow for the possibility of parole for teen murderers after 25 years behind bars.

The bill would overturn a component of Proposition 115, a tough-on-crime ballot initiative passed by voters in 1990.

The legislation pits law enforcement groups, which argue that there are teens who commit such horrendous crimes that they should spend the rest of their lives in prison, against some child psychiatrists and religious groups, which argue that teens' brains are still developing and even those who kill should be given a chance at redemption. Parole would be granted only to inmates who convinced both the state's parole board and governor that they deserve to be released.

Supporting the bill Tuesday was James Tramel, who argued that his life story proved that even murderers can change their ways and contribute to society. Tramel was convicted of murder in 1985 for his role in the killing of a homeless man in Santa Barbara.

He was granted parole last year, though, after becoming an ordained Episcopal priest while behind bars. Tramel had conducted services for the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Berkeley by phone from a prison in Vacaville.

Tramel told the Senate's Public Safety Committee that he arrived at San Quentin State Prison as the youngest inmate at the prison, and he turned his life around because he knew he had the possibility of parole.

"The pressure on a juvenile in prison to conform to the gang culture and to the currency of violence is immense," he said. "The dim light of hope at the end of a long tunnel of incarceration was sufficient to help me navigate the treacherous shoals of our penal system while building the character that would make me suitable for a return to the community."

Law enforcement groups oppose Yee's bill, however, arguing that judges have discretion now to sentence someone younger than 18 to life in prison without parole or allow for the possibility of parole. Teens who receive the lifetime sentence deserve it, said John Lovell, lobbyist for the California Police Chiefs Association.

"We are talking about 16- and 17-year-olds who have evidenced such a level of sophistication and malice that they are being tried as an adult," Lovell said. "We make a mistake when we talk of these people as children and youth. They are people who have committed horrific crimes."

The number of juveniles sentenced to life in prison is minimal; the advocacy group Human Rights Watch said Tuesday there are 227. But the group noted that African American youths receive the life sentence at 22 times the rate of white youth.

And Yee's office estimated that each juvenile would cost taxpayers more than $2.5 million to incarcerate for the rest of their lives.

Yee, a child psychologist, was joined by other psychiatrists who noted that adolescents' brains are still forming and therefore they should be treated differently than adults.

Elizabeth Cauffman, a UC Irvine professor who studies adolescent development and criminal behavior, noted that the part of the brain that includes impulse control is still developing in teenagers.

"Juveniles need to be held accountable for their actions, but the punishment they receive should be appropriate to their developmental status," she said.

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